Skip to main content
Main

Lobster Quenelles

Lobster quenelles are smooth dumplings made from lobster meat, butter, whiting flesh, panada, eggs, anchovy sauce, and spices, fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Lobster Quenelles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the meat from the lobster, including the claws, coral, and spawn.

  2. Pound the lobster meat, butter, whiting flesh, and panada in a mortar until smooth.

  3. Add the egg yolks, egg whites, anchovy sauce, salt, cayenne, and nutmeg. Mix well.

Shape and cook

  1. Shape the mixture into quenelles (spoon-shaped dumplings).

  2. Fry the quenelles in hot butter until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with lobster sauce as an entrée or use as a garnish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Whiting + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lobster + anchovytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Lobster + whitingtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lobster meat
Provides the main flavour and a tender, delicate body to the quenelles.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browns the outside when the quenelles are fried.
Whiting flesh
Adds lean white fish body that helps the mixture hold together and stay tender.
Panada
Starch-based binder that gives the mixture moisture and a light, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the mixture as it sets with heat.
Egg whites
Add structure and lightness, helping the quenelles set and puff gently when cooked.

The step that matters

Pounding until smooth. Thorough pounding breaks down the lobster and fish fibres into a fine, even paste. A smooth mixture binds well and gives light, tender quenelles rather than a coarse or crumbly texture.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Lobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesMeatballsMeatballs37 recipes